Hamilton takes back control

The Chinese Grand Prix wasn't great but it has delivered a lot of potential ructions for the future. I confess I've not actually seen the race, but I did hear it on the way to the World Endurance Championship taking place at Silverstone today. A lot of focus on radio goes on the leaders which is fair enough, but it does give you a harder time when trying to decipher where the best battles were although there were some obvious moments. Anyway, a truncated discussion of the Chinese race now follows.

Star of the race

Max Verstappen is delivering on the hype that's surrounded him since he was announced as the youngest ever Formula 1 driver last year. After starting down in 13th he put in an assured and confident performance with late braking moves on Sauber's Marcus Ericsson and Force India's Sergio Perez into the hairpin combined with a good strategy. Unfortunately his race went up in smoke a couple of laps from the end. At only 17 he's still learning his craft and that's got to make the drivers at the top take notice.

The winner

Lewis Hamilton dominated the Chinese race, a perfect riposte to Ferrari's unexpected Malaysian win two weeks ago. He pretty much led from start to finish with only his team mate Nico Rosberg and Kimi Raikkonen taking a few laps from him during the pit stops.

He started as he meant to go on. He lined up the car from pole position at such an angle towards the inside of the track that there was no doubting his intentions to want to block any attempt by Rosberg to get by. Either that or he just over shot with a final warming up of the tyres.

Lewis got away well and from then on just managed the gap. A lot is said about Lewis' aggressive nature in racing, but he's one of the best at just ticking off the laps as he takes control of the race. So in control was he that Rosberg thought his Mercedes team mate was backing him up into the Ferrari's.

Ah yes the Prancing Horse might not have galloped quite as strongly as it did in Malaysia but it was most certainly there, both of them this time with Sebastian Vettel tailing Rosberg for most of it, before Kimi Raikkonen gave him something to think about towards the end of the race. The Ferrari's served notice that they are at least going to make a race of it this year.

It certainly rattled Rosberg, because as Lewis continued on his serene way, just making sure everything was ok with his car and cruising it home to the finish, Nico was coming under attack from Vettel, especially with the undercut at pit stops. This is what the number 6 Mercedes felt was compromising his own strategy. He believed Lewis was doing this deliberately, something that has been denied.

Whatever, it didn't bother Lewis and he came home for his 35th career victory. Rosberg was second, with Vettel and Kimi lurking not far behind. I think we'll see a lot more silver and red battles as we go through the year.

The battles

Which brings me nicely on to some of the other highlighted battles of the day.

The Mercedes and Ferrari fight was one of strategy. Verstappen's moves were of controlled opportunism. Daniel Ricciardo was one to watch as he fell down the field after a terrible start from seventh on the grid. He made few moves which just didn't come off, in fact he seemed far less in command of the car than he has been, particularly compared to last year.

Perhaps his brilliant 2014 has made his expectations higher, I don't think he was predicting that in 2015 he'd be fighting for the lower reaches of the top ten and this has made his driving slightly off so far this year. Nevertheless, he came back through the field to eventually reward himself with ninth.

The main headline grabbing battle has to be that of the chase McLaren's Jenson Button gave to Pastor Maldonado. It was a little bit epic and always tense, you never know what Maldonado might do after all! As these two scrapped, Fernando Alonso on faster tyres was catching his team mate quickly, as the three were joined Button made his move and clattered into the back of Pastor at turn one, not his fault this time. It earned the Brit a five second penalty and points on his license. 

Alonso moved through and gladly took the places. He had reached the dizzying heights of 13th. You see, there's action all the way down the field in Formula 1. Maldonado was out, but Button continued to 15th. It might not seem like it but McLaren are getting closer. They may have dropped out of qualifying in the first round again, but they are racing and not just with themselves. I think once we reach round five in Spain they'll be on the edge of the points.

Things of note

To me this result confirmed that Ferrari will be a factor at most races this year. They were still there at the end of the race despite Mercedes pace advantage. Which leads me to make this bold statement. Kimi will be back on the podium soon, and might even sneak a win. He can be relentless when given a chance of victory. He's certainly not lost his racers edge, his opening lap confirmed this as he took both Williams cars to rise from sixth to fourth. 

While Ferrari are edging closer to the front, the Williams cars, the closest challengers to Mercedes on pace last year are not in contention. They may not have been all that far behind today with fifth for Felipe Massa and sixth for Valtteri Bottas, but a threat for victory? I think not. It's such a shame for one of the nicest looking cars around and a great team. They've got plenty of time to try and extract more pace though. 

At least they're better off than Red Bull, as Ricciardo struggled to the points Kvyat had a miserable afternoon retiring with engine failure. The team and Renault really need to raise their game before all these threats of withdrawing from the sport are too hard to say no to.

Sauber are still making hay while other teams struggle. An eighth and a tenth for Felipe Nasr and Marcus Ericsson respectively is another strong result. It just goes to show that Ferrari's improved power unit has not only helped their own team but helped push their customer back into points paying contention.

Points are also what Lotus have as well. Romain Grosjean crossed the line in seventh. A strong showing that earned the team points they should have had already. As Grosjean impressed, Maldonado was heading for escape roads in the pit lane. He may not have been to blame for his accident today, but even with video evidence you're still thinking but he must have done something ...

Both Manor Marussia's finished as well. Which is nice.

The title chase

So Hamilton now leads the title chase by 13 points from Sebastian Vettel. Rosberg is a further four behind. 

Hamilton is looking confident, composed, has all the answers. Vettel is the underdog and believes there are more wins to come and has no doubts that he should aim for the championship if he can.

Rosberg is whining and looking for excuses. I like Rosberg he's a good driver, but he needed to put one over on Hamilton this weekend and he didn't. He nearly matched him in qualifying, he possibly could have had a go at the win too, but he didn't. In fact he was more concerned about the Ferrari's.

I think Hamilton has got Rosberg mentally beaten already. Bahrain is just a week away, with high temperatures expected, could this be another race that might be Ferrari's for the taking? And if it is, will Mercedes starting having just tiny tiny thoughts, that perhaps this year Hamilton's challenger won't be Rosberg at all, it'll be Vettel. If there's anyone at all...

all photo's taken from autosport.com

Winter testing begins

The garage doors will be opened in Jerez, Spain tomorrow (1st February) as winter testing starts in what will be the opening skirmishes of the 2015 title fight. Despite my previous rant about the state of Formula 1, which if you so desire can be read here, there is a lot to get excited about.

All the teams apart from Force India are present at the opening test. Force India are saying it's so they can have extra development time, although with their owners under investigation for money related activities in India, I really hope it's not because the team have money troubles of their own.

As anticipation builds towards the first race of the season in Australia on March 15th, here's a few things I, and I'm sure you will be excited about in the run up to the lights going out and the action starts.

I think the first thing I have to mention is Fernando Alonso's return to McLaren after their acrimonious split in 2007. Alonso is accepting he will need patience as McLaren and the returning Honda get used to each other again. But how long will that patience last? I can't wait to see how these great power houses of Formula 1 gel together. McLaren have taken a new design direction while it'll be interesting to see how Honda perform after watching the other three manufacturers for a year. Will they have learnt from others mistakes?

I'm equally looking forward to seeing how Jenson Button stacks up against his Spanish team mate this year. Button stepped up when paired with Lewis Hamilton and I've a feeling he's going to give Alonso a much tougher time than anticipated.

Will Mercedes still be the dominant force? Over the winter Renault and Ferrari successfully argued they should be allowed to develop their power units throughout the season rather than stop at the end of February. They will still only be allowed to change a certain amount but they can extend their development times as they try to catch up to the Silver Arrows squad. Of course this also means Mercedes can continue developing, and Honda have now been given the go ahead to continue working on their engine too. 

It all means it should be closer, but with such a head start for Mercedes it's going to be tough to catch the works squad which could mean it's another head to head between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg. Hamilton could return serene in his accomplishment of last year and go on to higher heights and dominate, or Rosberg will have learnt what he needs to do to get into Hamilton's head and take it to him in a wheel to wheel battle. That's a situation I'm looking forward to seeing.

Daniel Ricciardo returns with Red Bull, if Renault have done a halfway decent job in improving their power unit, I think he could be a dark horse for the title. I look forward to seeing how Daniil Kvyat copes with being pushed into the big time. Ricciardo handled it well, but does Kvyat have that mental strength?

Sticking with the Red Bull world, how will two rookies in Toro Rosso cope without anyone to learn off? Well Ricciardo managed, and Max Verstappen comes into the sport at only 17 years old with just one years car racing experience and a few F1 practice sessions but he is also being touted as the next big thing. Will he handle that pressure? I think he will, from interviews and how he manages himself, he's going to go at his own pace, but expect good things. Carlos Sainz Jnr has had success in junior formulae, and a lot more experience than Verstappen whilst also being three years older. If he doesn't beat him, could this be a one year adventure for the young Spaniard?

Ferrari's new car looks spectacular, although Sebastian Vettel in red takes some getting used to. Technical director James Allison says the car should suit Kimi Raikkonen a lot more than the monster that was last years Ferrari, so hopefully we'll see Kimi able to drive to a higher level than he was able to show in 2014. Whatever the situation with Kimi, whether fair or not, if Vettel doesn't thrash him like Alonso then people are going to judge his titles even less favourably especially after the beating he took from Ricciardo at Red Bull last season.

Ferrari have been in turmoil and this is a building year for the Scuderia, nevertheless, I'd like to see both drivers find their feet again in this still new Formula 1 that both struggled with last year. A change of scenery for Vettel after being with Red Bull so long will re-motivate him as he looks to build Ferrari back into a winning force.

I hope Williams build upon their brilliant 2014 and are able to challenge for wins. They've got the driver line up to really push on, and an ever improving and cohesive technical team, I believe they could be challengers this year if they are consistent.

Lotus now have the same Mercedes power unit, so it would be nice to see Romain Grosjean back up there and they're already talking of targeting Williams. Force India will want to aim for the top five especially with a driver line up of Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez while Sauber will be wanting to score points after their pointless campaign in 2014.

At the time of writing both Marussia and Caterham are still looking to find ways back to the grid, but it's highly unlikely.

At this time of year there's always a lot of questions with very little answers. Testing never gives a full picture but hints will start from tomorrow.

all photos taken from autosport.com

Drivers of the year Q2

We continue our drivers of the year with 17 down to 11. To read part one click here. And like the previous post we start with a Caterham driver...

17. Kamui Kobayashi (Caterham)

It's always difficult to tell drivers relative performances because of the car, in the end you have to make assumptions and compare them to their team mates. Kobayashi destroyed Ericsson after a year away from the sport. Despite driving for free to get back on the grid, he was flat out everywhere, even after Caterham started messing him around. It could have been him to get points in Monaco until he was barged out of the way by Jules Bianchi, which damaged his car. He couldn't have done too much more.

16. Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari)

The Ferrari was terrible this year, of that there is no doubt but surely the intra-team battle would liven it up for Ferrari? Not a bit of it, the facts are Fernando Alonso scored 161 points, Kimi just 55. He was out of sorts all year, could never get the car to his liking and suffered terrible luck when he failed to get a clean weekend for most of the year. Reliability certainly wasn't his friend. But when you see the other car half a minute up the road, then you know that the car is capable of more, Kimi was unable to extract that potential. 

He had some starring moments, he should have had a podium in Monaco, beat Fernando in Belgium and raced hard with his team mate in Brazil. But that was it. I think he was fully motivated to do well, but he's not a driver able to drive round a problem in the mould of Alonso or Hamilton. Disappointing year, but at least Fernando left otherwise he'd be sitting without a drive albeit with a whole heap of money if Ferrari had paid him off. Again.

15. Jules Bianchi (Marussia)

Bianchi looked a bit sketchy at the start of the season, Chilton looked closer on pace but he soon sorted it out and began to impress once again. Dragged the Marussia as high as it could go, often being the lead of the Marussia/Caterham battle. 

One of the best moments of the season was when he crossed the line 9th to score the teams first world championship points in Monaco, which came from one of the best passes of the season when he threw his car up the inside of Kobayashi at La Rascasse. A bit of wheel banging and he was through. A 12th place in a wet British Grand Prix qualifying was equally impressive. Then in Japan came his accident causing severe head injuries which means he currently resides unconscious in a French hospital. A Ferrari academy driver, it was rumoured he could've been in the team next season. #ForzaJules

14. Romain Grosjean (Lotus)

A driver I rated well in the top ten last season doesn't just become my 14th rated pilot because he forgets how to drive. However a car which was often one of the top two vehicles on the track in 2013 but becomes one of the worst this year helps contribute to a fall in driver performance. 

For me Grosjean will be a Grand Prix winner given the equipment, he has learnt to be fast and consistent, long gone are the days of predicting the lap Grosjean might have a crash. But the car was not there for him this year despite two fantastic eighth places in Spain and Monaco.  

His fifth place qualifying at the Catalunya track has to be one of the laps of the season. But as the season went on and he suffered yet another failure of his Renault power unit, things got to him and he started making public his frustrations. With Mercedes power next year in his Lotus, we may see him able to exploit his talent properly.

13. Kevin Magnussen (McLaren)

Podium in your first race for McLaren, certainly not a bad way to start your Formula 1 career. Magnussen qualified brilliantly in Australia and took third place which became second after Daniel Ricciardo's disqualification. It was as impressive a debut as any, it looked like Button had a fight on his hands at McLaren. 

The season ended with Button out-qualifying Magnussen 10-9 and out scoring him 126-55. Magnussen was far better than those statistics make out, some of his Saturday afternoons were fantastic. However, you can't escape the fact he lost his way after the podium for several races and barely deserved a mention. But he came back fighting, his driving in Belgium and Italy, particularly his defence was extremely impressive, he suffered penalties but I think both were arguably unfair, it at least made people aware of him once again and brought a spark back to his driving. 

But still there were other times like in Japan, where he looked a little lost. Magnussen is young, quick and is only going to get better. He deserves another year but for now will have to settle for a reserve driver role at McLaren for 2015.

12. Jean-Eric Vergne (Toro Rosso)

Vergne isn't the best qualifier but he sure is a racer. 22 points, 14 more than his Red Bull bound team mate Daniil Kvyat managed to score. But Kvyat was in his rookie campaign and still managed to out qualify him over the year and the Russian could have scored a few more points if it weren't for problems. He pretty much matched Vergne in his debut year, he's only going to get better. 

That's Vergne's problem unfortunately, he almost matched Ricciardo, he was matched by a 20 year old rookie while Vergne was in his third year. Very good, but not quite good enough? Toro Rosso is meant to bring on talent so although Vergne would have been a good bench mark for either incoming Toro Rosso drivers, Max Verstappen or Carlos Sainz Jnr, he's had three years in the team, their aim is to breed drivers for Red Bull. They've not promoted him twice now, why would they do it a third time? 

It was a shame, after he thought he was being ousted by Verstappen he came alive in the last third of the season with a number of charging drives, particularly in Singapore. Vergne has got himself a seat in Formula E in that series next race in Uruguay this weekend but he's too good to not be in Formula 1 and deserves a chance with another team, however as other Toro Rosso rejects have found out, it isn't easy getting back in when you've been thrown out.

11. Sergio Perez (Force India)

I'm not sure Nico Hulkenberg thought Perez would be quite as up for the battle within Force India as he turned out to be. Perez took the teams only podium of the year in Bahrain and nearly scored another in Canada. He was still prone to the odd moment of over exuberance, but I was impressed by Perez this year. He scored in eleven races, further shaking off the tag he is just a driver for a few stand out drives while not bringing home the points in the rest. His comparison to Hulkenberg is favourable as Nico is highly rated, Perez was close and many times better over the season. The question is though, do people now think Perez is better or Hulkenberg worse?

Click on the link for the top 10 drivers of the year.
 
all photos taken from autosport.com

Kvyat the big winner as Vettel leaves Red Bull

Sebastian Vettel is to leave Red Bull at the end of the year with Daniil Kvyat to take his place in the current World Champion team. Red Bull all but confirmed Vettel is off to Ferrari, most likely in place of Fernando Alonso whose relationship with the Scuderia has fallen apart, while Alonso is likely to end up with McLaren.

A shocking announcement to wake up to as qualifying for the Japanese Grand Prix got underway. Nico Rosberg took pole position ahead of Lewis Hamilton to set up another enticeing battle in the championship fight but all talk was for the driver movements affecting 2015.

Vettel's decision to leave comes as a complete surprise. Not so much that he's leaving Red Bull but how soon it is to happen. Although not confirmed by Ferrari it is almost certain that's where he's off to, but why?

Well Red Bull haven't been as good this year, Technical director Adrian Newey is going to step back, he's been taking a beating from Daniel Ricciardo and perhaps he wants to prove to the doubters that he can win in another team as many still seem to think he only won because he was in the best car. It's sound reasoning therefore that he would want to take up a new challenge and get Ferrari back to the top.

Although if Alonso can't win with them and they're in a worse state than ever it seems a curious decision. It's no secret Vettel has struggled to adapt to these new cars this year, I'd have thought stick with what you know and see how Ferrari get on next year, meanwhile do your best to get one over on Ricciardo.

But what if Ricciardo continued to beat him next year? Vettel's market value would diminish and potentially he could be left with fewer options about where to go. There's so many permutations to this it could be assessed forever. In the end it's probably a wise decision as Ferrari will of course one day get it right again, but how soon? And as one F1 journalist tweeted today, if Vettel struggles with them will they be left reflecting on how Alonso would be doing, or worse how Ricciardo would have done?

One thing we know for sure is that Alonso can drive round a bad car, but Vettel seems to need things more suited to him, it's going to be fascinating to see how this pans out. There's so much more to this situation as well, what of Kimi Raikkonen? Will he stay after such a miserable season. Vettel and Kimi are two drivers who have openly admitted they've struggled to adapt to these new turbo cars, is this what Ferrari want to lead them? Meanwhile this looks like it certainly means Alonso is on his way.

With all the management changes going on at Ferrari and the relationship between driver and team on the critical list at least since last year when Alonso criticised the team, it was inevitable that he would leave but I think most people thought it would come next year.

After the catastropic 2007 campaign he had with McLaren no one would have thought he'd end up back there but negotiations are on-going and it'll no longer be a surprise to see him end up back there. Ron Dennis wants the best drivers, and like at Ferrari there's been a lot of restructuring in the management and in the technical departments, so perhaps both team and Alonso are putting the past behind them to look to a brighter future.

More importantly though Honda want a big name driver, McLaren's new engine partner for 2015. They have long since targeted Alonso and I think whether Ron liked it or not, they were going to get their way as they aim to re-start their latest stint in F1 in a positive fashion. Honda will spend what they need to secure wins and like Ferrari it is inevitable that they will get it right again one day. But how soon?

Alonso is desperate for a third title and after five years of trying at Ferrari, they've not been able to make it work. We know he has a reputation for sometimes putting teams on edge, but for so long they seemed very much in love, how can this relationship have fallen apart so dramatically? Maybe he was demanding too much, maybe the new management at Ferrari had had enough of him looking for other options or were tired of everyone believing Alonso was carrying the team (which to be fair, he has been). Whatever it is, it's not a harmonious departure.

On that note how long can Alonso suffer another team in flux? It'll take a while for Honda and McLaren to get it right, perhaps he might take a year out, perhaps we're about to get another bombshell regarding a drive at Mercedes. Who knows? Alonso seems quite relaxed and happy and says he knows, so thats who. 

If Alonso is to go to McLaren I would think it'll be at the expense of Jenson Button. I think after the investment they've put into Kevin Magnussen who is at the start of his career they'll decide to stick with the Dane. But Button would raise his game considerably up against Alonso, like he did with Hamilton so it could be argued they should stick with him and give Magnussen a year out?

Unfortunately for Jenson that scenario is unlikely and it looks like it could be his last year in Formula 1 because as a former world champion do you really want to race for say Force India? Probably not. It would be a sad way to end, but nothing is confirmed yet.

Arguably it could be said that Vettel and Alonso are swapping their current seats for potentially worse seats, at least in the current situation, so you have to say that Kvyat's move from Toro Rosso to Red Bull is the really big winner in the driver moves.

What an opportunity for the young Russian driver after only one year in the junior team to be promoted to the four time champions. He has to believe Renault are going to make a huge improvement on the power unit and Red Bull will still have a car which will have been predominantly overseen by Adrian Newey despite him stepping back, at least for 2015.

He has been mostly hugely impressive this year and you could say looked better against his team mate Jean-Eric Vergne than even Ricciardo did last year, especially when you consider it's his rookie campaign. It could be quite a close battle at Red Bull next year and I don't think you can say their driver line up looks less despite the loss of a four time champion because quite simply Ricciardo has been brilliant and is a star in his own right while Kvyat looks a worthy addition for the reasons I've just given. Potentially if you look at the comparisons between drivers at Red Bull and Toro Rosso, then he could be in line to be the first Russian world champion in Formula 1. You got to say that it is not an unlikely scenario.

Vergne is rightly annoyed too that he was looked over. But it was never going to be him moving to Red Bull when Max Verstappen was announced for Toro Rosso. He's matched the 2015 Red Bull line-up, he deserves a seat but like Sebastien Buemi and Jaime Alguersuari before him, the Red Bull young driver program is ruthless.

It's also been rumoured Nico Hulkenberg might be off to sports cars which would be a great shame as he has deserved a seat in a top team for years but it seems he will be continued to be overlooked and admittedly he hasn't been quite as on it this year, perhaps for this reason. Force India say he is under contract for 2015.

A roller coaster of a Saturday morning and so many different scenarios, reasons and arguments that can be presented for all this situations. It's fascinating and there's probably a few more shocks to come in this crazy world of F1.

all photos taken from autosport.com

Max Verstappen to be first 17 year old to race in Formula 1

He’s not even old enough to take his driving test, but 16 year old Max Verstappen has been chosen to drive for Toro Rosso in 2015 replacing Jean-Eric Vergne. Having only just joined the Red Bull young driver program it’s certainly a dramatic promotion to Formula 1 as he’s been out of karting less than a year.

But have no doubts this guy is sensational, he ripped it up in karting winning many championships and has only graduated to cars this year where he currently lies second in the European Formula 3 championship with eight wins. He must be good for Red Bull’s young driver program is notoriously tough and with the likes of Carlos Sainz Jnr on their books, it’s amazing they’ve had the faith in him to commit him to Formula 1 so soon.

He’ll be the youngest ever driver on a Formula 1 grid when he starts the 2015 Australian Grand Prix at just 17 years old beating former Red Bull young driver Jaime Alguersuari. Current Toro Rosso driver Daniil Kvyat was 19 when he made his debut this year having won the 2013 GP3 title, but even someone so young had been competiting in cars since 2010 unlike Verstappen who’ll have only one year behind him.

It can work out well of course, Kimi Raikkonen had only a year of car racing behind him when he was signed by Sauber for his Formula 1 debut in 2001, six years later he was world champion. Of course it doesn’t always work out so well, the aforementioned Alguersuari was promoted early, and despite an increasingly good performance in his two and a half years he was unceremoniously dropped and out of Formula 1 at just 21 years old. 

Unfortunately he hasn’t managed to find a way back although he has signed up to drive for Virgin in the exciting prospect of Formula E.

Verstappen’s own father Jos was relatively young for Formula 1 back in 1994 at just 22 after just a few years in cars, he was seen as an exciting prospect. But he was thrown in at the deep end as test driver for Benetton when he was called up to be team mate to Michael Schumacher in one of the most controversial seasons the sport has ever known, much of the uproar centred round that team.

He floundered and although he survived in Formula 1 sporadically until 2003 his potential was not realised. The hype surrounding Max is much more, but he’s already shown he can hold his own in car racing and with six rounds left can still win this Formula 3 championship.

Toro Rosso boss Franz Tost said "We consider Max to be as one of the most skilled young drivers of the new generation and we believe he has the necessary maturity and mental strength to take on this challenge successfully."

The team obviously have faith in their new signing, and with people having had doubts about Kvyat being brought in too early being proved emphatically wrong, the future looks good for Verstappen especially with all the help the team and the engineers can support him with now. The Formula 1 press are certainly excited by the prospect saying his car control and the way he handles the car is extremely impressive for one so young.

I just hope he is given time, usually Toro Rosso will invest in their new drivers for at least two seasons so Max will have a phase of learning. I hope he can put it together because to be washed up by Formula 1 at just 19 would be a terrible for him. However the way he’s being talked about and the way he’s driving this year, his prospects look anything but terrible, already he is being talked about as the next big star of Formula 1.

We’ll wait and see, time must be given, but he’ll certainly be being watched very closely when the lights go out in Melbourne next year.

all photo's of autosport.com 

Sebastian Vettel fighting back

“When he [Vettel] will have a car like the others, if he wins, he will have a great recognition and be one of the legends in F1… When one day he has a car like the others and he is fourth, fifth, seventh, these four titles will be bad news for him because people will take these four titles in a worse manner than they are doing now.”

There’s a German leading the championship in the best car in 2014. It’s not Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull though. However, the Red Bull team have mostly been the second best out there and have taken two victories so far this year, but neither was scored by their four time champion. Two facts which make the above quote from Fernando Alonso at the tail end of last year stand out just a little bit more.

At the time of Vettel’s victorious years many in the F1 world wondered whether it was just the car catapulting him to win after win. Could it be that he was merely a good driver piloting an exceptional car? I wondered during winter testing when it became apparent that Red Bull would be facing an uphill battle if Vettel would struggle when confronted with a car which wasn’t an immediate front runner.

In brief I speculated that with the banning of blown diffusers, something Vettel had exceptional technique with and a major advantage of the Red Bull if he’d full back in the pack. Further to that the conservatism with which Pirelli approached this season because of the huge torque coming from the new for 2014 hybrid turbo power units, and the fact that I think they were fed up with their tyres being blamed for everything took another advantage of Vettel’s away. He was brilliant at getting the best out of those more brittle tyres, better than anyone else.

Two major elements had been taken away along with a whole chunk of downforce and one major addition of a power unit where the throttle pedal is extremely sensitive, unlike in the blown diffuser era where you practically stepped on it and let the aero sort you out, it would stick in the corner, now it won’t. It doesn't help that his Renault power unit is the worst in the field as much as 90bhp down on th Mercedes.

I thought back in February that if Vettel were to struggle it would be an ideal opportunity for his new team mate Daniel Ricciardo, promoted from Toro Rosso, to take advantage. But Vettel is a four time world champion, so I dismissed this as a possibility but highly unlikely. As has become quite clear during this season, never dismiss Ricciardo for the young Australian is a brilliant talent.

He leads Vettel in qualifying by 6-5 which should actually be 7-4 as Ricciardo suffered a 10 place grid penalty in Bahrain which put him behind his team mate. In the races he is even further ahead. When both cars have finished Ricciardo has beaten Vettel 6-1.

Ricciardo has scored five podiums of which two were wins and this is not including the second place he was disqualified from in his home race. Vettel has managed to get on the podium just twice this year and each time it was the bottom step. For all the world to see these statistics provide a compelling case, when he’s finished it’s been mostly fourths and fifths, kind of what Alonso said might be the case if Vettel were to sit in a car which wasn’t the best, you know that’s what the Spaniard was implying.

First of all that shouldn’t take anything away from Vettel’s achievements of the previous four years, it was a different era of Formula 1, one in which he exploited the potential of the machinery available to him to the full. In that era, with that technology he was unsurpassed. This is a very different Formula 1, one in which he hasn’t yet got used to. 

Alonso is a brilliant driver, probably the best all-rounder in the business, he can adapt to anything that comes his way, to me that makes a great driver. His current team mate Kimi Raikkonen was meant to challenge him but Alonso has wiped the floor with him, I don’t think that means Kimi is suddenly a bad driver. He has been brilliant these past few years, but something about this new era doesn’t sit well with him a bit like Vettel.

Vettel is sensitive to change, he needs a car where the back end will stick, something that the cars are not capable of doing to the extent they have been in the recent past. Vettel has not been able to change his style and feel comfortable in the car whereas Ricciardo has jumped in straight from Toro Rosso which didn’t have as advanced blown diffuser technology and straight away adapted to this new Formula. He is a team mate who is eager for success, something Vettel has not had to put up with for a while as probably since 2011 Mark Webber was demotivated a lot of the time after losing his one shot at the title.

This doesn’t mean he won’t learn how to deal with these cars or that success has somehow dulled his driving when he’s got to fight harder for it. If anything his frustrated radio messages this year show just how much more he wants, just how annoyed he is at being beaten. This car and this team mate is the toughest time he's ever had in Formula 1, even though he denies this. Ricciardo has been constantly shading him in qualifying. Just when you think Vettel might have the beating of the Aussie, Ricciardo pulls a lap out of the bag. In the races Ricciardo is feisty, attacking, amazingly consistent, including the Mercedes drivers, he has probably been the most impressive driver of the season so far.

Vettel is up against a star of the future, just like Alonso was when Lewis Hamilton got his chance at McLaren when the Spaniard was beaten. This is plainly not some journeyman driver who has turned up at Red Bull, he’s been through the same young driver program Vettel himself went through, there is little doubt that Vettel is up against a future world champion.

Having said that, there are signs that Vettel is turning a corner, especially since FRIC suspension was banned, he looked strong in Germany and out-qualified Ricciardo in Hungary. But even before then, he hasn’t been quite as trounced by Ricciardo as it might seem; it could be argued that both Ricciardo’s wins could have been Vettel’s. Delays in traffic meant he exited behind Ricciardo after pit stops in Canada when he was running in front for most of the race. It could well have been him who took advantage of the struggling Mercedes.

In Hungary he was in third when the safety car came out as he was passing the pit lane, just behind Ricciardo was one of the first into the pits which put him into the lead at the restart. Circumstance has not gone his way nor has reliability, it’s like they’ve given him Webber’s car.

So yes, Vettel has been out performed this year, he hasn’t made the best of the equipment at his disposal, so he’s certainly not out-performing the car like a great can. However, he has out-performed the car in previous years (Red Bull never had an advantage like Mercedes have this year), he is improving in this era and he is beginning to match an exceptional young driver.

Might you have expected more from a four time champion? Yes, quite probably, but this car doesn’t suit him, but it’s coming to him and I will not be surprised to see him match and beat Ricciardo more often after the summer break. He won’t dominate him like Webber, he may not even beat him overall this year, but he’ll match him. He is a very intelligent driver, very mechanical minded and he won’t leave a piece of telemetry unturned until he’s worked out how to succeed once again.

It’s not all lost for Vettel, he’s only just turned 27, he is still learning himself and sometimes it does you good to experience losing. But he won’t want it to last for long. He has achieved great success, but is he a great yet? Greatness is too often bandied around, greatness is earned, it’s about how you achieve success, how you exploit it when the opportunity arises and how you get it back when times are tough. Vettel is going through those hard times, but as the season continues and turns into 2015 I won’t be surprised to see him standing atop the podium once again. He’s turning a corner, adjusting, and it may take until next year, but it’s coming to him, and he’ll make sure it does.

all photo's taken from autosport.com

Will Fernando Alonso ever win another title?

Fernando Alonso is arguably the best driver currently racing in Formula 1. He’s a two time world champion who has proved his worth in the best cars and most certainly in many poorer cars as he drags them to wins and podiums they shouldn’t be achieving. He’s come so close to adding another title but missed out so often but with Ferrari continuing to squander the talents of their lead driver and the Spaniard certainly in the latter stages of his career will he get another opportunity to secure the third title he so desperately craves? 

Since he won his last world championship all the way back in 2006 for Renault, he has fought for a further three, all of which he perhaps should have won in 2007, 2010 and 2012. Two of which, and one in particular when he was driving a car which just didn’t deserve to be competing at the front, let alone nearly winning the world championship.

After winning for Renault he joined McLaren which was a tumultuous season and which quickly meant an exit back to Renault to have two relatively uncompetitive years where he scored just two wins and failed to win in 2009. But everyone knew he was still fighting as hard as he could mostly, especially when a sniff of a decent result came along.

Ferrari likes to have the best driver available and so rescued him for what would surely become one of the most successful partnerships in the sport. It hasn’t been. Admittedly it should have accrued him at least another two titles but that was more down to the driver than the team. This Alonso-Ferrari combination is now entering its fifth season together and if you go on the Michael Schumacher-Ferrari formula of success, it should be bearing the fruits of countless winners trophies. But it isn’t, it’s probably going to result in Alonso’s first winless season since the dark days of 2009, and that is just unacceptable to a man of Alonso’s quality and drive to succeed.

His lack of winning titles hasn’t done his reputation any harm at all. If anything it’s enhanced it greatly. 2012 should go down as one of the best examples of driving a near perfect season as anyone has ever seen only derailed by others mistakes, and I’m sure it will for the many knowledgeable fans out there, but for the casual fan the name written next to 2012 as the championship winner will be Sebastian Vettel’s and that’s all they’ll know.

I think it would be a tragedy for a driver the calibre of Alonso to end his career without another world title especially because in my opinion he is so much better now than when he won his first two titles. Is Alonso destined to be a driver remembered for just a couple of titles but mainly for outperforming his machinery? 

There’s something heroic about that, but in the end it’s not what gets you recognised as a true great around the world, success is the true barometer of a sportman’s legacy for many, and unfortunately for Fernando that’s been in short supply for too long. He needs another title, as if you cared to you could question his first two championships? When Kimi was a true speed king, he might well have won in 2005 if his McLaren hadn’t have been so unreliable. 2006 too, Schumacher probably should have won if it were not for an engine failure while leading at the penultimate race. 

I do tend to look at it another way though, 2005 he maximised his machinery and as is his way, built a championship, won when he could, maximised the points available if he couldn’t. He took the title with two races left to run. His 2006 title will always remain one which should be highly regarded as he battled an at his peak Schumacher to the last race of the season and beat him in pretty equal machinery. But since then he has played second fiddle to Vettel as the young German has exploited the maximum potential of the Red Bull machinery. Alonso has been the main guy to push Vettel, always the one challenging when perhaps he shouldn’t be. It's caused him much frustration to watch Vettel rack up the wins in a superior car when Alonso believes he's not as good as his four championships suggest.

On the Sky sports website, it was noted that that once again it was Alonso who was mixing it with this year’s dominant power unit Mercedes, but asked if he got much satisfaction from outperforming his car he replied tellingly. ‘"Not much," he sighed. "It's been five years like this. There is always satisfaction that everyone believes you are always performing at your best. There's the respect from drivers, Team Principals and fans for the job that you do. But I prefer to have no respect and to win more trophies."’

And there’s the rub of it. Alonso has made no secret of the fact that he deeply desires a third world title to put him amongst the greats like Ayrton Senna (although there’s plenty of great double world champions too), but as he approaches his 33rd birthday in just a month, time is running out for him to achieve his ambition.

You could say he has at least another four to five seasons but at the moment he is contracted at Ferrari until 2016, a team which should be producing consistently competitive cars but which have now been struggling to do that for over five years. Periodically Ferrari go through fallow periods, I don’t expect this one to last as long as the 21 year wait that Schumacher ended in 2000, but it’s not unreasonable to say it could be longer than four or five years.

Ferrari has been struggling with the calibration of their wind tunnel and even the supposed fix for this season doesn’t seem to be producing. They’ve brought in people like Pat Fry who designed for McLaren before and James Allison who was at Lotus and worked for Ferrari in the latter stages of the Ferrari steamroller of success. After the Schumacher era though, the core group of people that made the team work so harmoniously fell apart gradually, and it hasn’t had that same harmony since. It’s like trying to tape up a cut when it needs stitches; it’s not going to get better quickly. It’s taken Alonso to drag the limping horse to its feet these past few years and he continues to do that this season as he makes a mockery of the excitement that (an admittedly struggling) Kimi Raikkonen would challenge him as his team mate this year. 

Alonso publically maintains belief that Ferrari can step up next season, but it always seems to be next season at the moment with scarlet team. So where could he go? It’s well known his management team did a bit of investigating at Red Bull last season, but the likelihood is that with the immediate success of Daniel Ricciardo partnering Vettel, that driver combination will remain for a few years yet, although if Vettel doesn’t start beating Ricciardo a bit more you never know. 

McLaren have Honda coming on board next year, it’s a partnership that should work but McLaren aren’t exactly producing great chassis at the moment either and it’s bound to take a few years for this partnership to come to fruition. Despite saying things to the contrary I’m not sure Ron Dennis would want Alonso back after the 2007 spy gate affair lead to his acrimonious departure after just one season of a three year contract.

Mercedes? I think they’re quite happy with Nico Rosberg and Hamilton to be honest despite a Mercedes board member heaping praise on the Spaniard. I’m not sure any team would really want to put Alonso and Hamilton together again.  There really doesn’t seem anywhere open to him that would be immediately competitive. I’m afraid also that his reputation of throwing his toys out of his pram on occasion at Renault, the bust up at McLaren and the increasingly frosty relationship he seems to have at Ferrari has put people off him, he could disrupt the team especially if a team mate gets too close for comfort.

Unfortunately for Alonso he looks stuck at Ferrari as his best bet and that might mean he may never win a title again. As the younger generation become more established and he is in the latter years of his career, it becomes increasingly unlikely that a team will look to him to lead them for the future. After this season it will have been eight years since he won the world title. It wouldn’t be right for his career to be defined by early success and then a constant fight with sub-optimal cars that he out drove.

However, I’m not sure it would be right for him to jump into the best car and beat everyone either. No, for a fighter such as Alonso I think it would be far more poetic for him to create the perfect season as his legacy in a car just off the best. To drag and cajole it to perform miracles that no one on the grid (apart from perhaps Lewis when the mood takes him) could do. 

It’s obviously frustrated him to be given substandard machinery, after the epic 2012, last season he seemed subdued sometimes but who can forget that stare after he lost the title in the final round, it spoke of just total amazement and devastation, it was like he couldn’t quite believe that he could have lost after everything he’d done. He had put so much effort into 2012 that I think it was inevitable that after all he had done for Ferrari and they once again failed to keep up their side of the bargain that he would be sometimes below par. 

However he has regained the fight this year despite another poor car. I truly believe he can recreate a 2012 performance again. He might want to do it in the best car, but I’m not sure Ferrari can give him that for a while and there are no openings elsewhere. One more perfect season Fernando, he can be king again and he deserves to be.

all photo's taken from autosport.com